Judge Lynch His First Hundred Years

. . . . 276 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Preface TO HELL WITH THE LAW LYNCHING has many legal definitions It means one thing in Kentucky and North Carolina and another in Virginia or Minnesota. For the purpose of this work it is defined as the execution without process of the law, by a mob, of any individual suspected or con- victed of a crime or accused of an offense against the prevailing social customs. The state of Minnesota clearly defines it as the killing of a human being by the act or procurement of a mob. In Kentucky and North Carolina the lynch-victim must have been in the hands of the law or there was no lynching. Virginia defines it simply as murder and ordains that every person composing the mob, upon conviction, shall be pun- ished by death. There is more than the simple dictionary definition of lynching. Behind every lynching, beyond the de- struction of the unfortunate victim, is the debasement of citizenship, the crucifixion of justice and democra- tic government, the prostitution of public officials, and the depraved behavior of the mob-members. The effects of a lynching on the mind of an observer, es- pecially a child, cannot be estimated. The conse- quences of sadistic practices put human relations on a considerably lower plane. Dr. A. A. Brill states Any- one taking part in or witnessing a lynching cannot re- main a civilized person. It is seldom that a mob gives voice to its creed as did the one outside Covington, Tennessee, in August, 1937 when urged by the sheriff to let the law take its course, it cried, To hell with the law It is not only the cry of the lyncher but of every other type of criminal. Since 1882, when lynchings were first recorded, through 1937, the toll of the mob has been 5,1 I 2 vic- tims. More than four fifths of these were Negroes, of whom less than one sixth were accused of rape. Lynchings have declined from a high of 2 3 5 in I 892 to a low of eight for 1937. The decrease was not con- stant in 1932 the number fell to ten only to rise to twenty-eight in the following year. It is an inevitable fact that during the coming years certain Americans will meet their deaths at the hands of mobs. Lynchers are criminals in the same sense that mur- derers and kidnapers are criminals lynching is a crirni- nal activity, and to be put down it must be considered as such. Obviously law enactment is not enough rigidenforcement is necessary and it must be backed up by a public sentiment against the crime. Even the most serious protagonists for a Federal law against lynching do not believe that it will stop the practice...